Russians in London: how the LSE helps companies with international growth

By: Ayuna Nechaeva, Business Development Manager - Russia, CIS & Mongolia, London Stock Exchange

Source: GAAP-IFRS.COM

About the author

Ayuna Nechaeva is responsible for London Stock Exchange’s business development activities in Russia, CIS and Mongolia. Ayuna promotes London Stock Exchange markets, Main Market and AIM, among companies in these regions and facilitates communication between them and the London-based advisor and investor community.

Ayuna Nechaeva holds a Master’s in International Business from Grenoble Graduate School of Business and an MA in Linguistics and Intercultural Communications from the Moscow State University.

Prior to joining the London Stock Exchange, Ayuna worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) both in Russia and the UK.

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London has long been the natural home for Russian companies seeking international growth. In recent years, Russian companies have played an increasingly important part in the IPO story in London, representing a wide range of sectors. In 2011 10 Russian companies joined London Stock Exchange markets raising over $7bn through IPOs and further issues. Overall, there are over 70 Russian companies listed and traded on the London Stock Exchange with total market capitalization of over $600bn.

Russian depositary receipts’ issuers trade on the International Order Book (IOB), the most liquid electronic trading platform in the world for the trading of GDRs (Global Depositary Receipts). Since its launch in 2001 the IOB has shown tremendous growth and last year the total value traded on IOB exceeded $275bn and accounted for around 16% of total order book value traded on the London Stock Exchange.

AIM, the Alternative Investment Market for small and growing companies, was set up in 1995 to stimulate long-term economic development by supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). AIM has proved to be a successful market for smaller companies enabling them to raise capital through both IPOs and further issues to fund their growth. Upon reaching a certain size, some AIM-quoted companies choose to transfer to the Main Market.

The London Stock Exchange’s Russia & CIS team are in Russia on a regular basis, not only in Moscow but also in the regions. On 21 February 2012 the London Stock Exchange is organizing an IPO seminar in Krasnodar jointly with PwC and the Krasnodar Region government. There are many events in the pipeline for this year, aimed at creating awareness among Russian companies about capital raising opportunities in London. London Stock Exchange’s also has a dedicated website, www.russianipo.com designed to offer useful tools and resources for Russian companies looking to launch an IPO.

The London Stock Exchange Group operates an annual Graduate programme designed to recruit and develop our next generation of leaders. The programme is open to students from around the world and in the last two years we have taken on a number of Russian graduates. Anyone interested in applying can visit the careers section of the website: http://www.londonstockexchangegroup.com/careers/graduateprogramme/graduateprogramme.htm

About the London Stock Exchange Group

The London Stock Exchange Group sits at the heart of the world’s financial community. The Group operates a broad range of international equity, bond and derivatives markets, including London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana, MTS, Europe's leading fixed income market and Turquoise, offering pan-European and US lit and dark equity trading. Through its markets, the Group offers international business, unrivalled access to Europe’s capital markets.

The Group is a leading developer of high performance trading platforms and capital markets software and also offers its customers around the world an extensive range of real-time and reference data products and market-leading post-trade services.